WNC Garlic Fest 2015

WNC Garlic Fest 2015

Eat, Learn and Grow

The second annual WNC Garlic Fest will once again grace the South Slope of Asheville on Sept 26, 2015! It is a free event, open to everyone; vampires welcome, if they dare.

WNC Garlic Fest combines a celebration of all things awesome about eating garlic and a deep driven belief that we can share the simple skills necessary to empower everyone to grow great garlic.

Humble Beginnings

“The first Garlic Fest was kind of an accident,” says Chris Smith of Sow True Seed. “We wanted to have a day of free garlic growing workshops, but everyone got a little overexcited.”

Sow True Seed, Asheville’s local open-pollinated seed company hosted WNC Garlic Fest last year. Chris Mills, the tech guy, made a garlic ice cream with dehydrated garlic sprinkles; Chris Milan, the accountant, made garlic hummus with three different varieties of garlic; and Elliot Rhodes, the farm coordinator, made honey fermented garlic.

“It was more like a garlic-themed potluck,” says Smith. “Lots of fun, but totally manic and not very scalable. WNC Garlic Fest is going to be a little bigger and better this year…”

Enter the WNC Garlic Trail

WNC Garlic Fest will be running in conjunction with the inaugural Venture Local Street Fair. Banks and Buxton Avenues on the South Slope, Asheville’s burgeoning brewery district, will be closed from noon till 6pm on Sept 26, 2015, for local vendors to set-up shop.

Simple Skills : Great Garlic

WNC Garlic Fest will be staying true to its roots. The festival will include a series of FREE one-hour garlic workshops, including Garlic Growing 101, 201, Garlic Nutrition and Preserving Garlic. Local speakers, including Asheville authors Nan Chase and Denise Barratt will be presenting at Sow True Seed throughout the day. See wncgarlicfest.com/learn for a full schedule.

“It was very important to us that we not lose the original idea behind WNC Garlic Fest,” says Smith. “We want everyone to have the skills and the knowledge to grow their own great garlic.”

Sow True Seed will have a selection of certified seed garlic varieties available for purchase leading up to and on the day of WNC Garlic Fest.